Beyond Bank Accounts: Why Millions Of Nigerians Still Struggle To Achieve Financial Security

By DAVID JOHN-FLUKE

NIGERIA’S financial inclusion drive is reaching a new stage.

More adults are using formal financial services. Digital payments and mobile money are becoming part of everyday life. Formal savings have expanded, and overall financial exclusion has declined.

Yet the 2026 Access to Financial Services in Nigeria (A2F) Survey by Enhancing Financial Inclusion and Advancement (EFInA) reveals a persistent contradiction: participation in the financial system is expanding faster than Nigerians’ ability to withstand financial shocks.

The survey found that 61 per cent of Nigerian adults remain in severe liquidity distress.

It also found that among adults who experienced shocks, 71.6 per cent relied on fragile or erosive coping mechanisms, while only 13.8 per cent adopted protective or adaptive responses.

The figures suggest that financial inclusion has entered a more difficult phase.

The issue is no longer simply bringing people into the system. It is making the system useful enough to improve their economic security.

A Bigger Financial System, Vulnerable Households

The expansion of financial access is one of the more visible developments in Nigeria’s financial sector.

But access does not necessarily equal resilience.

A household can maintain a bank account, make digital payments and save formally while still struggling to meet its expenses.

The A2F 2026 survey attempts to capture that distinction by examining financial health alongside financial inclusion.

EFInA said the 2026 edition was designed to determine whether financial services are actually translating into stronger resilience, economic participation and improved outcomes.

That approach is important because previous survey rounds had already shown the limitations of using access alone as the measure of success.

In 2023, for example, formal financial inclusion rose to 64 per cent from 56 per cent in 2020, even as EFInA reported a sharp deterioration in financial health.

The latest findings continue that conversation from a different angle.

The Cost of Financial Shocks

Financial distress becomes most visible when households encounter unexpected shocks.

Those shocks can include illness, loss of income, business failure, rising prices or other events that disrupt household cash flow.

The response to such shocks can determine whether a family recovers or falls deeper into vulnerability.

EFInA found that most shock-exposed adults relied on erosive or fragile coping mechanisms.

This matters because some coping strategies solve an immediate problem by creating another one.

Selling an income-generating asset, taking expensive informal debt or reducing essential expenditure may provide temporary relief but weaken future earning capacity.

The survey’s findings therefore raise a broader question about the quality of financial resilience available to ordinary Nigerians.

Poverty Is Increasingly the Fault Line

The country’s financial exclusion figures also reveal a strong relationship between economic resources and financial participation.

Financial exclusion has fallen to 21 per cent, according to the 2026 findings.

However, 53 per cent of adults in the poorest wealth quintile remain excluded from the formal financial system.

Only 1 per cent of adults in the richest quintile remain excluded.

Almost half of excluded Nigerians are concentrated in the poorest 20 per cent.

This distribution changes the policy question.

If exclusion increasingly affects people because they lack sufficient economic resources, simply expanding access points may not be enough.

A financially vulnerable household may be unable to maintain balances, afford fees, qualify for formal credit or purchase insurance even when the relevant products are physically or digitally available.

Financial inclusion therefore becomes inseparable from poverty reduction and income security.

Geography Does Not Explain Everything

Nigeria’s large rural population and uneven distribution of financial infrastructure have traditionally made geography a major part of the financial inclusion debate.

The A2F 2026 findings suggest that geography alone cannot explain the remaining gaps.

Among middle-wealth adults, rural and urban exclusion was reported at 16 per cent in both locations.

That finding points towards the importance of economic capacity.

Two Nigerians living in different locations may face different infrastructure challenges, but people with similar economic resources can also experience comparable levels of exclusion.

For policymakers, the implication is that future programmes may need to combine geographic targeting with income, occupation and vulnerability indicators.

Digital Finance Is Expanding Rapidly

The transformation is particularly visible in digital finance.

Digital financial usage increased from approximately 47 per cent to 64 per cent, while mobile money usage rose from 12 per cent in 2023 to 38 per cent in 2026.

Mobile money is increasingly being used for ordinary transactions, including bill payments, purchases and receiving money.

This marks a substantial change in financial behaviour.

However, digitalisation also creates a temptation to equate convenience with inclusion.

Digital tools can make payments faster and reduce some physical barriers to financial services.

They cannot, by themselves, solve inadequate income, high borrowing costs, weak insurance coverage or the absence of emergency savings.

A digital-only financial inclusion strategy could therefore leave some of the most vulnerable Nigerians behind.

Savings Are Improving, but Productive Finance Lags

Formal savings increased from 38 per cent to 53 per cent.

That is a substantial expansion.

Yet formal credit remained at only 10 per cent. Insurance stood at 5 per cent, while pension participation was about 9 per cent.

The pattern raises questions about what Nigerians can actually do with the financial system once they enter it.

Saving provides an important foundation, but businesses also need working capital.

Farmers need financing and risk protection.

Households need insurance against major shocks.

Workers need retirement security.

The relatively low penetration of credit, insurance and pensions suggests that the financial system’s capacity to transfer risk and finance livelihoods remains considerably weaker than its capacity to facilitate transactions and savings.

Farmers Carry Multiple Risks

Agriculture demonstrates the problem particularly clearly.

According to EFInA, 51.2 per cent of farmers experienced a shock.

More than half of shock-exposed farmers—52.2 per cent—used erosive coping mechanisms, while 76 per cent experienced residual distress.

For a farmer, financial resilience can depend on several factors at once.

Credit may be needed to purchase inputs. Savings may provide short-term liquidity. Insurance can protect against specific risks. Climate adaptation can reduce exposure to environmental shocks. Markets determine whether production eventually translates into income.

A financial system that addresses only one of those needs may provide access without delivering genuine resilience.

Women Are Not One Financial Category

The survey also provides a more nuanced picture of women’s participation.

Formal inclusion among women business owners increased from 67.5 per cent to 76.3 per cent.

Among women farmers, it rose from 42.7 per cent to 53.6 per cent.

Yet exclusion among dependent women increased to 52.2 per cent.

The contrast demonstrates why broad demographic categories can conceal significant differences.

A woman running a business has different financial needs from a woman working on a farm. A dependent woman may face different constraints from both.

The challenge for financial institutions is therefore not merely to design products “for women,” but to understand the economic circumstances and financial risks of different groups of women.

The Consumer Experience Matters

There is another dimension to the expansion of financial participation: the quality of the services consumers receive.

The A2F survey examines communication, customer support, service timeliness and fraud education.

These issues are often treated as secondary to access.

They should not be.

A customer who encounters poor communication, unresolved complaints, service delays or inadequate fraud protection may technically be included in the financial system while remaining poorly served by it.

As financial transactions become increasingly digital, trust and consumer protection become central to sustainable inclusion.

EFInA has identified consumer protection and financial health as important elements of the next phase of Nigeria’s financial inclusion agenda.

Sanusi’s Warning About Reform Continuity

The launch also brought an institutional perspective from former CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.

Sanusi warned against abandoning economic reforms after initial progress.

He argued that Nigeria has a recurring tendency to make policy gains and subsequently reverse them, forcing the country to begin again.

He cited the period when inflation had fallen to about 7.8 per cent and the CBN had moved towards inflation targeting and tighter monetary conditions.

His argument was not simply about monetary policy.

It was about continuity.

Financial inclusion operates within a wider economic environment. When inflation erodes purchasing power or economic uncertainty increases, the ability of households to save and businesses to plan can deteriorate even if access to financial services improves.

Stable and credible economic policy therefore forms part of the environment required for meaningful financial inclusion.

CBN: Evidence Must Guide Policy

Representing CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso, Aisha Isa Olatinwo described the A2F survey as an accountability instrument capable of showing who participates in the financial system, how services are used and where barriers remain.

That role is significant because the survey provides a demand-side perspective.

Financial institutions can measure the number of accounts opened, transactions completed or loans disbursed.

A household survey can ask a different set of questions: whether people can cope with emergencies, whether financial services meet their needs, and which groups remain excluded.

EFInA has conducted A2F surveys periodically since 2008, creating a long-term dataset on Nigerian financial behaviour. The organisation says the 2026 edition is the ninth round and adds stronger tracking of financial health, fraud prevention, climate vulnerability and state-level differences.

From Inclusion to Outcomes

The central lesson of the 2026 findings is that Nigeria’s financial inclusion story cannot end with access.

A bank account is useful.

A digital wallet is useful.

The ability to save formally is useful.

But the larger objective is financial security.

That means households should be able to withstand emergencies without destroying their future earning capacity. Businesses should have access to appropriate finance. Farmers should be able to manage production and climate risks. Women and vulnerable groups should be able to obtain relevant services. Consumers should receive fair treatment and protection.

The 61 per cent distress figure therefore deserves to be read alongside the progress recorded elsewhere in the survey.

Nigeria is not standing still.

The financial system is expanding, digitising and reaching more people.

The unresolved question is whether that expansion is strong enough to change the financial realities of those at the bottom of the economic ladder.

The next phase of financial inclusion will be measured not simply by how many Nigerians enter the system, but by how many can use it to save, invest, protect their livelihoods and survive economic shocks without falling deeper into vulnerability.